Dr. Komarovsky on how to treat barley on the eyes of a child

Barley in the eye of a child is a frequent problem faced by parents of absolutely all children at least once in their life. Sometimes barley appears with enviable consistency. Most parents do not consider it necessary to consult a doctor and try to treat barley on their own with the help of folk recipes and “grandmother's” methods. Is this correct, says famous pediatrician Yevgeny Komarovsky.

Gordeolum, and this is precisely what they call in medicine what the people call “barley” - this is an acute inflammation of a purulent character. When it affects the hair sac or the sebaceous gland of Zeiss, located in close proximity to the eyelash bulb.

If inflammation has occurred on the outer part of the eyelid, then they speak of gordola, if on the inner side of the eyelid, physicians diagnose inner barley. When it is inflamed the so-called meibomian gland.

And in fact, and in another case, the child's eyelid swells, there is redness and pronounced pain. For 2-3 days the barley acquires a yellow "head" filled with pus, later it breaks through, the purulent contents come out, the pain disappears, and the swelling gradually subsides.

Sometimes redness of the mucous membrane of the eye, increased body temperature, enlarged lymph nodes (usually ear, occipital, submandibular) are added to these classic symptoms.

With internal barley (meibomite), the inflammatory process is not so acute, the pain is not so strong. The abscess, when the time comes, is opened not outside, but inside the conjunctival sac.

Most often, according to the observations of ophthalmologists, barley appears in the upper eyelid. If the boil occurs in the lower eyelid, it tends to hurt more.

In young children, the course of infection is always more pronounced than in adolescents. A one-year-old child often develops a temperature when barley occurs, and sometimes even the appearance of symptoms of general intoxication.

In children of 2-3 years old, barley flows more easily. When the boil on the eye of a teenager, quite often you can do without treatment, because the pust ripens quite quickly and opens itself.

According to Yevgeny Komarovsky, in the overwhelming majority of cases (probability more than 99.9%), such inflammation causes a microbe, which is called Staphylococcus aureus. It is a microbe that is very resistant to antibiotics and aggressive external influences, which always causes inflammation of a purulent character.

The germ spreads through the friction of the affected area, for this very reason some babies have several barley one after another in one eye.

It is impossible to avoid contact with this bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus lives almost everywhere. However, in one child it causes barley when it gets into the eye area, while in another it does not. Here, according to Dr. Komarovsky, an additional factor plays a role - the state of the child’s immunity. If the immune defense is weakened by a recent illness, the likelihood of developing hordeolum increases.

Another "auxiliary" cause of barley Komarovsky considers the violation of the sweat glands. Therefore, the doctor advises to pay special attention to whether you are overheating the child, whether he is sweating.

If the baby’s barley appears often, and they are not single, but there are several of them at once, then it is a question of furunculosis.In such a situation, it is usually impossible to cure the crumb only by local means, says Yevgeny Komarovsky. In this situation, ingestion of antibiotics, which have a rather effective effect on staphylococcus, is required. There are many such drugs, the doctor, given the severity of the infection and the age of his young patient, will be able to select and prescribe the medicine he needs.

When treating staphylococcal infections on the skin, it is rarely possible to get rid of the problem with antibiotics in 3-5 days. Yevgeny Komarovsky claims that it will take at least 14 days to adequately treat the problem.

If barley is a “guest” infrequent, and comes mostly alone, without comrades, Komarovsky does not recommend abusing local-acting antibiotics. This is important so that the local immunity of the baby will be able to develop independently.

In some cases, with a strong pain syndrome and a large amount of boil, a fairly standard treatment can be prescribed: instillation of 20-30% sodium sulfacyl, hydrocortisone emulsion (1%) and some other drugs into the eye.

At the initial stage of development of barley, you can try to stop the reproduction of Staphylococcus aureus with the most common green leaf. To do this, use a 1% solution of brilliant green, which can be purchased at any pharmacy. A microbe that can withstand boiling and direct sunlight, as well as withstanding the strongest of most powerful antibiotics and antiseptics, for an inexplicable reason can not tolerate the most common Zelenka. Sometimes the development of barley after such processing completely stops.

If the barley has turned into a large abscess (abscess), which happens not so often, the surgeon may need help from the surgeon, who, under the conditions of the strictest sterility, will open the abscess and clean it from pus.

It makes sense to refer to the surgeon in the event that the abscess did not open itself independently 7-8 days after the onset of the disease. There is no need to be afraid of such treatment, the surgical autopsy does not leave marks in the form of scars and scars.

When the temperature rises against the backdrop of goldeolum child can be given antipyretics. TOOmarovsky advises using either Paracetamol or Ibuprofen for this.

• You can not use lotions, wet swabs and soaked in whatever compresses. Previously, such methods were recommended for barley, but now it has become quite obvious to medicine - the bacterium multiplies more actively, moving with moisture to neighboring sweat glands and greasy sacs.
• You can not steam out the child, drive him to the bath, sauna, wash in hot water. The reasons are given in the previous paragraph.
• You can not warm the barley. Neither a boiled egg, nor a handkerchief ironed with iron, according to Komarovsky, it is not worth warming up the place of purulent inflammation. When heated, Staphylococcus aureus feels great, it multiplies actively and willingly, this leads to increased pus formation.

The abscess grows - this is the first minus. The second is the likelihood of pus breaking through and getting into the bloodstream, which is fraught with very dangerous diagnoses, up to sepsis.

A child prone to the appearance of boils, do not need to be wrapped up, it is impossible to prevent overheating, profuse sweating.Also, the mother should be more attentive to the choice of baby powder for washing children's clothes and bedding of such a child - they must be hypoallergenic. It is important that such a baby learn to gently clean the eyes every day - from the outside corner to the inside with a dry and clean gauze pad.

If parents want to treat their child with barley with folk remedies, it is worthwhile to dwell on the most innocent of them.

Out of the whole arsenal of traditional medicine, Komarovsky considers prayer and spitting for a child in the eye to those who are popular with the masses. If you really believe in the result - you can not care, but without fanaticism. It is possible to show a cookie in the direction of a sick eye without any restrictions.

If a child wears contact lenses, it is better to temporarily abandon contact lenses during treatment, so as not to “take away” the infection between the sick and the healthy eye.

More will tell Dr. Komarovsky in a small video below.